Housing with rotary valve and sealing member



P. POOTJ ES Sept. 30, 1947.

HOUSING WITH ROTARY VALVE AND SEALING MEMBER Filed Sept. 7, 1943 3 Sheets-Sheet l PETER P001756 55% I gag /%/6-' 4/ 'Il/IIIIIl/I/IIII/IIII/II Ill/IIIIlIIIIIIIIIIIl//fi( P. POOTJES Sept. 30, 1947.

HOUSING WITH ROTARY VALVE AND SEALING MEMBER Filed Sept. '7 194:5

3 Sheets-Sheet 2 grwe/wtom PETER POOTJES Sept. 30, 1947. POOTJES 2,428,241

,- HOUSING WITH ROTARY VALVE AND SEALING MEMBER 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 PETERPOOT/ES 3 6 W zf that it can stay in place Patented Sept. 30, 1947 HOUSING WITH ROTARY VALVE AND SEALING MEDIBER Peter Pootjes, Temple City, Calif., assignor to Western Precipitation Corporation, Los Angeles, Calii., a corporation of California Application September 7, 1943, Serial No. 501,475 3 Claims. (Cl. 222-368) This invention relates to rotary valvesfor transferring mobile material between compartments and particularly to rotary valves for handling powdered or leak or flow around the valve.

The tendency towards leakage increases'when there is an appreciable difference between the air a bin under atmospheric pressure. The powdered or granular material is frequently of an abrasive nature, and some of the previously prounder ordinary An object is to provide heavy sealing ing position relationship a unitary, relatively member which gravitates to its sealand therefore maintains a, floating with the rotary valve, the sealing member having a neck which extends into an opening of the valve housing to receive a packing which not only augments the sealing function but also keeps the sealing member in a centralized position.

A further object of the invention is to provide a relatively heavy sealing member of the foregoing description, which, because of its extended bearing surfaces, will be subject to a minimum amount of wear and which will compensate for such wear as must occur.

A further object of the invention is to provide a sealing member having an arched under face which provides a close sealing engagement with the circular end walls and blade tips of a rotary valve, the member having a substantial weight so solely by gravity.

Another object of the invention is to provide a rotary valve having simple yet effective devices, preferably within the rotary valve pockets, for

granular material that tends to' rotor showing one compartments.

agitating the material to facilitate the complete discharge of the material from the valve.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a central, vertical section ofa rotary valve or roll feeder embodying the invention;

Figure 2 is a central, vertical section taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Figure 3 is a detail sectional view of portions of the neck and housing, particularly showing the packing;

Figure 4 is a, plan view of the structure in Fig. 1;

Figure 5 is a perspective view of the improved sealing member, a portion being broken away;

Figure 6 is a sectional view of a portion of a type of agitating device in the pockets;

Figure 7 is a sectional view of a portion of a rotor showing another type of agitating device in the pockets;

Figure 8 is a detail elevation of a portion of the rotor of Fig. '7

Figure 9 is a, central, vertical section of a modified form of rotor; and

Figure 10 is an elevation of the rotor and sealing member in Fig. 9, a portion of the latter being broken away. particularly illustrating the helical form of blades.

In the drawings, the reference numeral l0 identifies a housing which comprises substantially identical castings ll, l2 having flanges l3 which are secured together upon a gasket M by bolts i5 or the like. The flat end walls l6, I! (Fig. 2) of these castings merge into the wall portions l8, l9 that form the inlet and outlet openings of the housing, the respective ones it and I9 being flanged at 20, 2i for attachment in a dust conduit. This conduit may comprise a hopper 22 and bin 23 (dotted lines, Fig. 1) which, broadly speaking, constitute a pair of storage A rotary valve 24 is supported within the housing In to transfer the material from the compartment 22 to the compartment 23.- The material may be in granular or powdered form and the pressures may either be the same in both compartments or they may be different. According to the present invention. a relatively heavy cast sealing member 25 of novel form c0- operates with the housing Ill and valve 24 to transfer the material from one compartment to the other against the outflow or inflow of gas or air, should there be a predominating pressure in either one, and to prevent the escape of dust if plates 28 of the valve, see Fig. 3, and ribs one of the compartments is open to surrounding outer atmosphere.

The valve 24 has radial blades 26 which divide the rotor into pockets 21 that are closed by circular end plates 28. The blades 26 and end plates 28 are usually, but not necessarily, made integral with each other and with a hub 29. This hub is secured by taper-pins 30 (Fig. 2) or their equivalents to a shaft 3|. Any conventional drive (not shown) may be coupled to the shaft to rotate it and consequently the rotary valve 24, at the desired speed and either continuously or intermittently. Suitable bearings 32, afiixed to the end walls l6, support the shaft. These bearings desirably have carbon bushings 33 and terminal packings 34. The rims 31 of the rotor end plates 21, and the edges 38 of the radial partitions 26 lie in the surface of a right circular cylinder, and the lower surfaces of the saddle portion 39 and of the end walls 40 of the sealing member are also cylindrical and have the same radius. The circumferential length of each cylindrical segment of the saddle portion 38 is somewhat greater than the circumferential spacing of the radial blades 26 that divide the rotor into pockets 21, see Fig. 1. The upper portion or neck 4! of the sealing member extends upwardly into the inlet passage, and is spaced from the wall l8 of the passage on all sides. The outer end surfaces All of the sealing member are preferably substantially flush with the outer surfaces of the end 42, with filletted upper surfaces 43, project inwardly beyond the rims 31 of the end plates to deflect the dust or other mobile material from the joints between the rotor end plates and the sealing member.

Gaskets or other packing material M are fitted into the recess 45 formed by confronting rabbets I8, 41, respectively, on the outside of the neck 4| and on the inside of the inlet l8. This packing prevents leakage around the outside of the sealing member 25 and is of a yielding nature to maintain a tight seal even though the sealing member 25 drops slightly as a result of wear on its lower face and on the peripheral surfaces of the rotor. A gasket 48 between the hopper 22 and housing inlet l8 partly overlies the packing 44. The sealing member 25 is a relatively heavy casting that is held by its weight, and in part by the pressure exerted by the mobile material upon the upper edge of the neck in close engagement with the rotor. Wear of the engaging surfaces is at a relatively slow rate in view of the large areas in contact, and the sealing member 25 drops down by gravity to maintain an effective seal.

Some powdered materials and some dusts removed by cyclone separators may form compact masses that adhere to the rotor 24. Two types of agitating devices for insuring the discharge of powdered material from the rotary valve are illustrated in Figs. 6, I and 8; The first type, shown in Fig. 6, comprises chain or similar loops 9 which are hung loosely in the rotor pockets 21 by eyes 50 on the end plates 28. These loops may consist of loosely coupled elements other than chain links, their function being to drop by gravity to break up compacted masses of the powdered material and to beat upon the blades 26 during rotation of the valve, thus preventing the material from adhering to the walls of the pockets. It is contemplated that the;valves will be used either with or without the agitating means, depending upon the character of the ma.- terial to be handled, and, for a graphical illustration of this option, only the eyes 50 are illustrated in Figs. 1 and 4.

As shown in Figs. '7 and 8, the agitating means comprises tubing 5|, either in one piece or in a number of short sections, mounted on spring wire carriers 52. The tubing is oversize in bore to allow movement of the tubing on its support to break adhesions and to strike and scrape along theradial blades 26, thereby achieving the result described for the chain loops. Each wire carrier is bent into bail form (Fig. 8) and then outwardly at 53 to seat in holes 54 in the circular end plates 28. The ends 53 may be fitted into the holes or released therefrom by bending or springing the resilient carrier wire. In order to maintain the desired seal, the holes 54 extend only partially through the end plates 28.

Rotary valves such as illustrated in Figs. 1 to 8 may be employed in material feeding operations in which a periodic discharge of equal quantities of material into a treating chamber or furnace is satisfactory. but a continuous feed at a substantially uniform rate may be required in other cases, for example when the material is fed into a moving stream of air or gas. A rotary valve 55 for effecting a substantially continuous uniform feed of powdered material is illustrated in Figs. 9 and 10. Since the housing l0, sealing member 25 and related parts are identical with those illustrated in Figs. 1 to 5, corresponding numerals are used throughout without the unnecessary repetition of the description. The blades 26 of the rotor 55 merge with the circular end plates 5'! to define pockets as before. These blades are inclined or helical, asbest shown in Fig. 10, so that as each blade clears the lower edge of the sealing member 39 it causes a progres sive discharge of the pocketed material along the length of each blade. The blades 56 are spaced more closely than in the previously described construction and the inclination of the blades to the axis of the shaft 3| is relatively low, thereby to prevent a sliding of the material axially of the blades to discharge the entire pocket as soon as the leading edge of a blade clears the sealing member 39. A substantially uniform discharge rate is obtained when the trailing end of one pocket clears the edge of the sealing member at substantially the instant that the leading edge of the adjacent pocket moves below the sealing member. For example, in Fig. 10 the leading end A of the pocket back of blade B arrives at and passes the edge C of the sealing member 39 as the trailing end D of the preceding blade E breaks contact with the sealing edge C.

It is to be understood that the features of the modifications may be embodied in one feeder valve either singly or collectively. For instance, the agitating means of Fig. 6 or Figs. 7 and 8 may be employed with the rotor in Fig. 1, while the blades of the rotor may be in radial planes. as shown in Figs. 1 to 5, or may be helical, as shown in Figs. 9 and 10. Preferred embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described but it is to be understood that other modifications fall within the spirit of my invention as set forth in the following claims.

I claim:

1. A mechanism for controlling the transfer of mobile material comprising: a housing, a pocketed rotor, and a u 'tary substantially rigid sealing member; said housing having an intermediate portion and an inlet portion at the top thereof and an outlet portion at the bottom thereof, said rotor being positioned within said, intermediate portion, and said sealing member being larged intermediate portion, a reduced neck porpositioned between said housing and said rotor tion at the top thereof forming an inlet and an being supported by said rotor and free to move the adjacent portion of said rotor, the saddle porcompensate for wear and to maintain sealing conso positioned as to engage only the greater portion tact with said rotor. of the upper half of the rotor, the sealing mem- 2. A dispensing mechanism for controlling the her being supported by said rotor and free to transfer of mobile material, comprising a housmove vertically downwardly as a unitto compenrigidsealing member, said'housing having an enwith said rotor.

larged intermediate portion, a substantially ver- PETER POOTJES. tically extending reduced neck portion at the top thereof forming an inlet and an outlet por- REFERENCES CITED fiq a the bottom thereof, d r0130! being 1 The following references are of record in the sitioned within said intermediate portion, and file of this patent;

said housing and rotor and supported by the lat- UNITED STATES PATENTS ter, said sealing member having a reduced neck Number Name Date portion conforming with the neck portion of Re. 20,440 Westberg et al. Julyfi, 1937 said housing and also having a semi-cylindrical 941,024 Mantius Nov. 23, 1909 saddle portion conforming with the adjacent por- 967,075 Sparrow Aug. 9, 1910 tion of the rotor, said saddle portion being of such 1,133,503 Ralston Mar. 30. 1915 size and so positioned as to engage only the 1,937,747 Creasey Dec. 5, 1933 greater portion of the upper half of the rotor, 2,011,133 Yoss Aug. 13, 1935 the sealing member being free to move vertically 2,161,553 Westberg et al June 6, 1939 downwardly as a unit to compensate for wear 1,096,785 Jensen May 12, 1914 and to maintain sealing contact with said rotor. 1,831,491 Hansen Nov. 10, 1931 3. A dispensing mechanism for controlling the 2,084,764 Constantin June 22, 1937 transfer of mobile material, comprising a hous 2,115,167 Hoke Apr. 26, 1938 ing, a, pocketed rotor and a unitary substantially 1,477,246 Conklin Dec. 11, 1923 rigid sealing member. said housing having an en- 2,054,522 Richert Sept. 15, 1936 

